Don't suffer, just buy a Su-57!
They say God loves trinities. We won't get into religious matters, as they're all very complicated, but here's the gist: the third HAL Tejas crashed in India. The third of twenty painstakingly produced aircraft, the hope and support of the Indian Air Force and everything else.
And here I would allow myself to say – another one.
The Indians' desire to create their own, even marginally operational, combat aircraft is understandable: it offers both prestige and independence. Considering that India still depends on Russia and France to equip its air force, even what's happening in Bangalore, Koraput, Nasik, and Hyderabad can't be considered fully Indian, although some Indian politicians allow themselves to say precisely that, claiming the Su-30MKI is already a 100% Indian aircraft.
Yes, they assemble it in India, but if Russia doesn't supply the engines and associated electronics, what will happen? That's right, "Tejas." And whatever you say, to consider something assembled in India from components and parts made in another country as Indian is simply shameless rudeness.
And the reality is here.
Think about it: the Indians have been trying to create their own aircraft for forty-two years. At least four generations in, and no one has even mentioned any "advantages" yet. During this time, history The third generation, the fourth, has acquired some "pluses," the fifth has taken flight, and the sixth has just begun flying as prototypes. And in India, everyone is working on the Tejas, which doesn't even really qualify as a fourth.
But it’s like it’s our own, “Make in India” and all that stuff.
The only thing that's not entirely clear is the Indian state-owned company HAL's scurrying around. We did some work ourselves and found out that it's the same old story—a gimmick. Roughly speaking, a "rice plant" (similar to a "corn plant"—ed.). But yes, it's our own and not on credit, as they say.
Basant. The first and, so far, only purely Indian aircraft.
No, there was a more or less successful attempt. The HAL HF-24 Marut, which Kurt designed for the Indians. Tank (yes, the very one from Focke-Wulf), the plane was actually quite promising, if the Indian military hadn't danced Tank to the point of a mental breakdown, perhaps something better would have come out, but...
Alas, miracles don't happen. Despite being conceived as a supersonic interceptor, the Marut never managed to exceed Mach 1. This limitation was primarily due to the engines it used, which, in turn, were constrained by various political and economic factors. Numerous attempts to develop more advanced engines or find alternative power plants have been unsuccessful, which is unsurprising: India has always had one of the highest levels of corruption in the world.
The Marut was often criticized for its high cost and lack of effectiveness compared to contemporary aircraft. However, it performed well in combat, primarily as a fighter-bomber in the ground-attack role. Its most notable contribution was the Battle of Longewala during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. Whatever one may say, Tank knew how to build aircraft.
Having "worked" independently and nearly built a second Basant, HAL decided to bow out again. In fact, it wasn't a stupid decision. If they had built on the Su-30MKI project and followed the FGFA project, India would have its own Su-57 today, a fifth-generation (well, 4+++++) fighter capable of tackling every airborne mission imaginable for a fighter.
Instead, having abandoned their work with Sukhoi, the Indians rushed to join forces with Dassault. In other words, they spent ten years tinkering with the aircraft themselves, another ten years fooling Sukhoi specialists, and then suddenly threw themselves into the arms of the French.
The choice is quite odd, as at that time and until the mid-1920s, the Rafale had a clear reputation as a failure. It's hard to say what prompted this decision. On the one hand, nobody was canceling five or six suitcases full of euros; on the other, the Indians have been working with France for a long time, since the Mirage 5, or perhaps both.
In any case, the tender embrace with France resulted in something the Indians themselves had been unable to achieve for 20 long years: at least a prototype design was produced. However, what was shown in 2002 looked less like a Rafale and more like a Mirage 2000, which by then was already a historical veteran like the MiG-29: it's flyable if you don't have the money for something new.
But the program took off like a shot, and ten years later (it had already been thirty years since work on the aircraft began), a prototype took to the skies. And ten years later, the Tejas's flight began to more or less resemble that of an aircraft that could fly.
Forty years—history knows of no project more leisurely. It's no surprise that the Indian Air Force openly abandoned the Tejas and opted to seek its fortunes in foreign contracts. Perhaps cooperation with Russia would have reached a new level for India, but the problem is—at HAL and above, people also want their chicken curry. And so began a clash between the military and the politicians.
Naturally, the politicians won. They decided to produce 180 Tejas fighters, thereby saturating the Indian Air Force with fighters to the required level. And, crucially, with Indian-made fighters, down to the last screw, not assembled from Russian kits.
The Indian Air Force marshals agreed. They had no choice, after all, since it's simple: in such countries, patriotism always goes hand in hand with the use of some kind of vile junk manufactured on an ideologically correct platform: all those Tejas, Iskras, and Moskvichs aren't worth a good word, but they're mandatory.
So Indian pilots continued to fly Sukhois and Rafales, and the very "lucky" ones, Tejas. No more than 20-30 of these aircraft have been produced to date, so there's nothing to worry about in principle, but here's the problem: these few aircraft suddenly began to develop serious, and some might say fatal, problems.
The first Tejas crashed in March 2024 in Rajasthan after a training exercise.
Fortunately, the pilot ejected and survived. The crash investigation committee determined that a seized oil pump, which destroyed the engine, was to blame.
Then came a very unpleasant incident in November 2025 at Al Maktoum Airport during the Dubai Airshow. The aircraft crashed in front of potential customers, and the pilot died.
The cause has not yet been announced, and an investigative committee is working. The plane was performing an aerobatic maneuver, so human error is possible, but given the type of pilots used for such events, human error can be ruled out.
February 7, 2026. Another disaster, the plane is completely destroyed.
The pilot ejected and suffered minor injuries. According to preliminary reports, a technical malfunction and onboard systems failure occurred, leading to a "presumed brake failure."
That is, in just a year and a half, 10% of Tejas aircraft ended up in the scrapyard because they crash no matter what. Considering how many of these aircraft have been produced to date, this truly is a systemic problem that goes far beyond the aircraft itself.
It's clear that the Indian politicians responsible for all this, at all levels, are trying their best to push Tejas into the skies. It's all about money, nothing personal. Some own shares in HAL, some are simply receiving kickbacks, and some are manufacturing components, from metal to rubber seals. Everyone, as they say, is involved.
But there's a growing awareness in society that the government is up to something strange. As the Indian Paper Magazine writes, "Let's first fill Aviation "We'll have working fighters, and then we'll do our own experiments. I think the Su-57 could very well be an interim solution to this problem. There are simply no other comparable options."
And commentators on the Indian internet are openly saying that the purchase of the Su-57 is a good and inevitable thing, because Pakistan already practically has the J-35.
You know what the end result will be? We'll end up buying 250 Sukhois again.
The situation is ridiculous beyond belief, as it's reminiscent of a similar situation in the Russian auto industry: they're unable to produce a decent modern product themselves, but no one is going to abandon the idea for political reasons. So they're pushing for the Tejas, Niva, Aura, Vesta, and Granta (cross out the unnecessary, although everything on this woeful list is unnecessary) with all their might, no matter what.
The only thing India hasn't yet thought of is cutting bonuses for Su-30MKI pilots in favor of Tejas pilots. Not a bad idea! Maybe they'll get to that point. At least it's patriotic and doesn't require credit...
In essence, representatives of India's military-industrial complex admitted to themselves and their government that the Indian AMCA fifth-generation fighter project would not leave the prototype stage. In fact, not until the late 50s. Everyone knew this in their hearts, but they were hoping for a miracle. But miracles, as we know, don't happen. There's the lobby.
It's important to understand that the Su-57 and Rafale are aircraft of different generations and are not competitors at all in the Indian Air Force. The Rafale's competitor (and what a competitor!) is the Su-30MKI, and for every Rafale in the Indian Air Force, there are nearly a dozen Su-30s. What kind of competition is that?
Moreover, it's no secret that the Indian Air Force currently requires approximately 400 combat aircraft of all classes. And it's no secret that the Indian Armed Forces command and the government are to blame for this, having gone completely overboard with the tender process and created a situation where "tenders = farce." The result is an aircraft shortage and a complete impasse regarding what to do next.
Continuing to churn out Su-30MKIs is no longer an option. After Pakistani MiG-21/JF-17s clobbered Indian Rafales, and Pakistan purchased the J-35 and is looking at newer Chinese defense products, Indian command definitely needs to change something. They need a new-generation aircraft, and it's definitely not the Rafale. The French aircraft simply doesn't stand a chance against the Chinese, there's no doubt about that.
Dead end?
Practically speaking. AMSA is a long-term project like Tejas, but it's far from finished. The project began in 2010, so it'll definitely be in use for another 20 years, and there's no talk of 2035, as announced by Indian aircraft manufacturers. Chinese and American aircraft are out of the picture for obvious reasons, leaving only Russian aircraft.
But since the collapse of the FGFA program, from which India withdrew in 2018, there has been no breakthrough in Indian projects, and the specter of buying European cast-offs has loomed large.
Actually, he's not a ghost. He has a name, and he's quite human. Former Vice Chief of the Indian Air Force, Air Marshal Anil Chopra.
This man put more effort into disrupting the Russian-Indian FGFA program than anyone else. Anil Chopra was the main lobbyist for the national project and argued that dependence on anyone leads to a loss of technological sovereignty.
In general, one cannot disagree with him, but with a caveat: if this technological sovereignty existed. It's difficult to find the right words, but to put it bluntly, technological sovereignty doesn't mean assembling Russian tanks, MLRS, aircraft, and machine guns at Indian factories from Russian machine kits. It means truly developing our own designs, based on our own engineering school, and producing them at our own facilities.
Yes, India has its own tank, the Arjun.
The ratio in the Ground Forces is 1:10 compared to the Russian T-90 and 1:26 compared to the Soviet T-72. I'd say it's a heartbreaking comparison. Although... the Tejas is also 1:10 compared to the Su-30MKI. They have their own Akash SAM system. The ratio to the Soviet Strela, Osa, and Kub is approximately 1:14.
But perhaps the best illustration is the Indian 1B1 INSAS assault rifle, which has proven so excellent that it is being replaced by the Russian AK-203, with over 600,000 units ordered.
Overall, it's safe to say that India's situation with its "homegrown" weapons is roughly the same as Russia's with its auto industry. That is, they have it, but in terms of modernity and effectiveness, it's a sad, depressing place. And for some reason, neither billions of rubles nor thousands of crores of rupees seem to be helping.
"India may need to acquire an interim fifth-generation imported aircraft. Our goal isn't to produce copies of the Su-57, but to learn and master the aircraft step by step, as we did with the Su-30MKI. We need to improve the capabilities of our services. Considering that China will be able to produce up to 1500 fifth-generation fighters, it makes sense for us to count on a similar number of aircraft, some of which will be Russian, but with a high degree of localization."
Mr. Chopra, an opponent of all things Russian, made this statement in an interview with The Hindu. Incidentally, The Hindu is the second most widely read newspaper in India after The Times of India. So, the retired marshal was counting on a larger audience.
This could be seen as an apology. However, words can actually help matters, especially considering that Mr. Chopra is one of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's personal advisers.
It's difficult to say what changed the former air marshal's outlook, but the fact is: something could change in India. And the Indian Air Force, with the help of Russian aircraft, will have a real opportunity to put itself on par with Pakistan and China.
Indeed, enough dancing, take the Su-57 and you will be happy.
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